NOTED: The Supply Chain in Brief-Nov 2020

NOTED: The Supply Chain in Brief-Nov 2020

Recognition

    • Transportation equipment lessor Milestone Equipment Holdings received the award for Best Overall Chassis Provider in the Port of New York & New Jersey from the Association of Bi-State Motor Carriers for providing drivers with high-quality equipment and offering responsive customer service.
    • The East Bay Economic Development Alliance honored the Port of Oakland with the Legacy Award at its 2020 Innovation Awards for its contributions as a generator of jobs and economic vitality in Eastern California.


Good Works

  • Packaging solutions provider Softbox contributed insulating pallet covers to help ship 800 donated temperature-sensitive medicines to the Democratic Republic of the Congo in partnership with International Health Partners.
  • Volga-Dnepr Airlines moved 55 tons of humanitarian cargo for more than 12,000 refugees who were left without shelter at the Moria refugee camp on the island of Lesbos in Greece after a fire destroyed the camp and neighboring territories.
  • Worldwide Flight Services’ team in Toulouse, France, provided ground and cargo handling services for a humanitarian flight to assist victims of the August 2020 explosion in Beirut. The team provided crew assistance and handling for 11 stranded engineering students.
  • Raymond hosted a Pink Pallet Jack Project online auction to support Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Participants bid on pink pallet jacks, and Raymond donated all proceeds to the Tina Fund, Northwest Hope and Healing, and Breast Cancer Angels.

Shovel Ready

  • C-Store Master, a convenience store supplier, is building a 120,000-square-foot automated warehouse in Huntsville, Alabama—the first of its kind in the United States. The warehouse’s 70 robots will operate a multilevel shuttle system.
  • Goya Foods will nearly double the capacity of its North American processing center in Brookshire, Texas. The expansion includes new processing equipment and adds capacity for Goya beans and other products experiencing increased demand during the pandemic.

Green Seeds

  • DHL Global Forwarding will neutralize the carbon emissions of all less-than-containerload ocean freight shipments in January 2021. At no extra cost to the shipper, DHL will replace the heavy oil that would be used with sustainable marine biofuel onboard a preselected container vessel.
  • Mars initiated a deforestation-free palm oil supply chain. The food manufacturer radically reduced the number of mills it sources from, awarding longer-term contracts only to suppliers who can commit to its environmental, social, and ethical standards. Mars will reduce its mill count from 1,500 to fewer than 100 by 2021.
  • Canadian Pacific Railway and Maersk will build and operate a transloading and distribution facility in Vancouver to provide sustainable intermodal options for shippers. Relying heavily on rail instead of trucks, Maersk’s global integrator strategy reduces multimodal handoffs, creating more sustainable operations with less truck emissions.
  • Amazon unveiled its first custom, all-electric delivery vehicle, designed and built in partnership with startup Rivian. Amazon plans to have 10,000 vans on the road making deliveries to customers as early as 2022, with a total of 100,000 vehicles expected by 2030.

Sealed Deals

  • Home furniture manufacturer La-Z-Boy selected AIMMS Network Design’s app to provide scenario modeling and results visualization. The tools enable La-Z-Boy to quickly evaluate various scenarios that drive supply chain efficiency and customer satisfaction.
  • Happy Returns, a provider of return solutions, and third-party logistics provider Ingram Micro Commerce & Lifecycle Services are working together to enable quick e-commerce returns. Merchants using this fulfillment solution can offer online shoppers a branded portal to initiate returns and drop off items box-free and label-free at a Return Bar.
  • Staples is partnering with tech firm Optoro to turn its stores into drop-off locations for returned goods sold by other online retailers. Consumers can bring returns to the more than 1,000 Staples stores in the United States and get credit for the items via QR code on their phones.

In Memoriam

  • Ken Johnson, former owner and chief executive officer at The Shippers Group, passed away on October 14, 2020. A relatable and inspiring leader, Johnson’s career in the third-party warehousing industry spanned several decades, starting as a warehouse worker and advancing to chief executive officer.

M&A

  • Tank truck transporter and logistics provider KAG North America acquired Paul’s Hauling, a Manitoba-based provider of bulk transport services in Western Canada, through its Canadian subsidiary KAG Canada/RTL Westcan.
  • Americold Realty Trust acquired temperature-controlled warehouse company Agro Merchants Group.
    Aptean, a provider of enterprise software solutions, acquired agiles, an enterprise resource planning software solution for the fresh food wholesale and trade industry in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
  • Global freight forwarder Gebrüder Weiss acquired logistics and distribution company Ipsen Logistics.
    PINC, a digital yard solutions provider, acquired RailcarRx, a provider of rail industry software solutions and services.

Up the Chain

  • Bill Hancock joined US Foods as executive vice president and chief supply chain officer, and will oversee all warehousing, transportation, and supply chain strategy and operations, as well as safety and labor relations. Hancock previously served as senior vice president of supply chain operations at American Tire Distributors and vice president of global supply chain operations for Target Corporation, where he spent 14 years in various leadership roles.